On University day of 2016, the Pullen art gallery was nearly dark, with people seated in front of a large screen. The presentation on the Sketchbook Project would soon begin. This was an aspect of art that truly proved the creativity of the human mind, specifically on the campus of the University of Maine of Presque Isle. A group of students stood before these people as a vast number of slides of their own creations flickered behind them. This gave them only a small portion of time to explain the meaning behind their art. Once one student’s art stopped appearing on the screen, the next would begin running through and another eager yet anxious face would begin explaining the contents of what it all meant to them.
The Sketchbook Project, based out of Brooklyn, gives artists everywhere the opportunity to make sketchbooks with specific themes and meaning behind them and are submitted once completed. The students at University Day presented on themes that ranged from monsters to family. The entire presentation involved a lot of energy and emotion. Some students even explained that their creations were hard to give up in the end. As Arianna Forbes said, “Art is life,” which is something that inspired her while creating her sketchbook. The number of elements that all of these pieces of art consisted of was sincerely impressive. Some ideas were complicated and only understandable after explained in detail. Others had simpler concepts: for example, things that were inspired by friends. This was represented in Mollie Hicks’ piece. She featured several portraits (some simply rough yet extremely well done) and quotes by friends, explaining insightfully that her reasoning for the rough sketches was because, “friends are never cleancut.”
Michael Thorin used some of his own ideas centered around specific quotes as well as self-portraits and other creative elements. He in particular was an artist who benefited from this project. He said, “It was good to learn how everyone can be a part of something bigger than themselves, and something internationally known.” It was clear that the students had ideas that were extremely meaningful to them, and it showed through in every one of their pieces. The sketchbook project was a way for the students to put their ideas on paper in a way that made sense to them. But it also allowed the people looking from an outside view to marvel over something profoundly beautiful.
